The Outer Worlds Pre-Release Thread [GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Bad Sector]

Are you trying to emulate the DOS gaming experience from the 90s or something?

Sorry I don't get the joke, what are you referring to?

 

[Nano]

Sorry I don't get the joke, what are you referring to?

Talking about the difficulty of it all and the various workarounds you have to use, it's 90s PC gaming-esque.

 

[Üstad]

Fun fact: Valve got a lot of hate back in the day for making Half-Life 2 exclusive to Steam. HL2 is also a big reason for why Steam is the dominant store.

What really solidified Steam's dominance is the insane sales they started doing starting from around 2010. Faced with $5 game after $5 game, a whole generation of hardcore, oldschool "What do you mean, there's no box and manual?" PC gamers said goodbye to their CD drives forever and never looked back. (The few who missed the memo like jewboy here find the whole Epic vs Steam thing a bit incomprehensible)

Which brings us back to the original topic. As soon as it sinks in that Microsoft is offering games for $5 a month, you might see that sort of generational shift again.

Well many boxed games just give your steam key to download. I bought M&B Warband boxed version, it was installing it from Steam. It still contained map of Calradia and the manual though.

 

[Bad Sector]

Sorry I don't get the joke, what are you referring to?

Talking about the difficulty of it all and the various workarounds you have to use, it's 90s PC gaming-esque.

Ah i see. Well, i always remember having issues with some games (especially older ones) so the 90s didn't stand out to me from that perspective :-P. If anything i think i put more effort into getting things to run in recent years than i ever did back then.

 

[toro]

Sorry I don't get the joke, what are you referring to?

Talking about the difficulty of it all and the various workarounds you have to use, it's 90s PC gaming-esque.

Ah i see. Well, i always remember having issues with some games (especially older ones) so the 90s didn't stand out to me from that perspective :-P. If anything i think i put more effort into getting things to run in recent years than i ever did back then.

It looks like you have a "bad sector"

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

The new Jsawyer talk low-key confirms universal character death for TOW. Companions prepare thyself for the journey over the river Styx.

 

[Sailor Woedica]

https://www.videogameschronicle.com...iverse-of-lore-for-future-outer-worlds-games/

Obsidian has ‘a full universe of lore’ for future Outer Worlds games

Obsidian is “absolutely interested” in fleshing out The Outer Worlds with future games, following public support from the studio’s new owner Microsoft, the game’s narrative designer has said.

Microsoft acquired Obsidian in late 2018 and its first-party games boss recently said he hopes The Outer Worlds grows into an “enduring franchise” for Xbox.

Speaking to VGC in August, the game’s narrative designer, Megan Starks said it feels “really awesome” to receive such strong support from the new parent company, and revealed Obsidian already has “a full universe of lore” with which to build potential future games.

“They’ve come to talk to the studio and it seems like Microsoft is super invested and really supportive, which for a developer like me feels really awesome,” she said. “It’s really exciting at the studio right now.”

Asked if Obsidian is aligned with Xbox’s hopes to grow Outer Worlds into an enduring franchise, Starks said: “I guess it depends on if people like the game, but we would absolutely be interested in plans like it, yeah. I really enjoyed making this game so I would like to work on it a while longer. But I think first our focus is polishing up this game and getting it out the door!

“The nice thing is, since the game is from the co-creators of the original Fallout IP, they just have notes and notes… we already have a full universe of lore, which is really nice.”

The Outer Worlds, which won the Game Critics E3 2019 award for Best Original Game, is being co-directed by original Fallout creators Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky.

Speaking to Game Informer in August, Xbox’s first-party boss Matt Booty indicated that the platform holder has aspirations for Outer Worlds beyond its debut release and said he thinks it is the “kind of game” that would benefit from being Xbox exclusive.

“From what we’ve seen of Outer Worlds, my hope is that that’s something we can build and that it really becomes an enduring franchise and it really starts to grow and we can help expand that,” he said.

“I think that it’s a great universe they’ve created and I think about what are the things that you need for a franchise to kind of bear weight? Like what can it withstand? Is it a narrative, is it a set of characters, is it a universe that’s big enough that you could start to add onto it?

“That’s what I love about what Halo has created. It can support all kinds of novels and fiction.”

The Outer Worlds will release for Xbox One, PC and PS4 in October. You can pre-order those versions of the game now on Amazon or Game UK.

The future of the Outer Worlds is going to be so fierce!

 

[Jenkem]

I'll be playing this on Microsoft Game Pass for PC.

 

[Max Edge]

https://www.videogameschronicle.com...iverse-of-lore-for-future-outer-worlds-games/

The future of the Outer Worlds is going to be so fierce!

Every hack have own "universe full of sth". Some of them find customers, like Bioware, and some are Obsidian.

 

[Atchodas]

Since this game is made by obsidian it will be unfinished mess from the begging to the point where they release "final patch" and its still not even close to being finished, they spent a decade developing pillars franchise and end result is crap

 

[J_C]

Since this game is made by obsidian it will be unfinished mess from the begging to the point where they release "final patch" and its still not even close to being finished, they spent a decade developing pillars franchise and end result is crap

Hi. Welcome in 2019. How do you like living in 2010?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Since this game is made by obsidian it will be unfinished mess from the begging to the point where they release "final patch" and its still not even close to being finished, they spent a decade developing pillars franchise and end result is crap

Hi. Welcome in 2019. How do you like living in 2010?

Fallout: New Vegas releases in a month when he's at

 

[Nano]

Fallout: New Vegas releases in a month when he's at

I wanna go back to 2010 too. How'd you do it, Atchodas?

 

[Efe]

i see that the scroll of truth remains an unwanted artifact still
but i guess you lot would be feeling good about it within this little echo chamber

 

[Quillon]

https://www.videogameschronicle.com...iew-i-think-fallout-fans-will-enjoy-our-game/

The latest RPG from Obsidian, The Outer Worlds, isn’t out until October but already the studio’s new parent company is talking about growing the title into a long-running franchise.

Microsoft acquired Obsidian in late 2018 and its first-party games boss recently said he hopes The Outer Worlds grows into an “enduring franchise” for Xbox.

Speaking to VGC, the game’s narrative designer Megan Starks said it feels “really awesome” to receive such strong support from Obsidian’s parent company, and the studio already has “a full universe of lore” with which to build potential future games.


Xbox’s first-party boss Matt Booty recently said he aspires to turn Outer Worlds into a long-running franchise. It must feel great to hear that kind of support from your new parent company?

Yeah. They’ve come to talk to the studio and it seems like Microsoft is super invested and really supportive, which for a developer like me feels really awesome. It’s really exciting at the studio right now.


And are you already thinking about long-term plans for Outer Worlds as a franchise?

I guess it depends on if people like the game, but we would absolutely be interested in plans like it, yeah. I really enjoyed making this game so I would like to work on it a while longer. But I think first our focus is polishing up this game and getting it out the door!

The nice thing is, since the game is from the co-creators of the original Fallout IP, they just have notes and notes… it’s crazy. We already have a full universe of lore, which is really nice.


You mentioned Fallout there. Obsidian certainly isn’t afraid to highlight the connection between your co-directors and that franchise. Does that show your confidence in this game?

Yeah, I think so. I’m a fan of Fallout for sure, as well as Borderlands and BioShock and I love this game too, which makes me feel confident. If you like those types of games then I think you will enjoy ours.

There were some comments recently about the game not being “politically-charged,” which caused a reaction among some fans. Does it frustrate you that games echoing real-world themes seems to be taboo among some parts of the gaming community?

I think everybody has their opinions on this, but first and foremost we are making a game for entertainment. We want it to be escapism and we want it to be a fun, enjoyable experience for players. But because we did make it a dystopian society, any real-world universe has to be rooted in these types of things. So of course there is going to be elements of politics in the game, yeah.


Do you think it’s important that there are elements of politics in game narratives?

Yeah, because I think you want to immerse people in the world and have that feel like a real universe that exists, so of course we want to be convincing, even if we are taking it to the extremes so that you can have this absurdist, humorous experience.

And it’s so different from your real world experience that it still provides that escapism and you’re empowered as a player. Because all of the characters are locked into this terrible system that they’re living in, but you exist outside of that so you are able to come in and make the choices that you want to make.


So you’re not pressured from above to cover or avoid any particular topics?

No, absolutely not. Tim and Leonard are really cool. They have a message that they want to convey and it’s my job to bring that to life, but then also introduce some of the things that personally interest me or I’ve experienced that I bring to the table. Because the writing team is so diverse, the type of things that they think are funny or evocative… we each bring that and I think that brings a really interesting mix.


Your design director said earlier this year that Obsidian has a reputation for buggy games, partly due to publisher deadlines. So now that Outer Worlds is almost out, what can you tell us about how the game has shaped up quality wise?

I think he was contrasting how it was in the past versus how we’re operating now. We’re currently playtesting, polishing and catching all of those edge cases and smoothing them out. That’s been our focus for the last few months.


So you’re happy with the quality of the game so far?

For sure, yeah.


The other big announcement recently was the Nintendo Switch version. Have you seen it? What can you tell us about how it’s looking?

We’re actively working on it. I’ve seen some footage and I think it’s looking really exciting. Matt [Singh, producer], who was in the announcement trailer, is a huge Nintendo fan: it was the highlight of his life to work on that deal. My husband was playing Switch on the plane here, so he’s super excited about the announcement too.

I think fans will enjoy it. I know people were really excited about some of the other large titles that came out for Switch, so I think people will really enjoy it. It’s going to be a great game for long commutes.


It seems The Outer Worlds has quite a bit of comedy. Is that hard to do in games, do you think? And why don’t we see more of it?

We had a lot of team members who were interested in that and Tim and Leonard have very different types of humour: Leonard is a little bit darker, whereas Tim wants to lighten the mood. I think that mix has worked out really well in the game and also everybody on the team brings their own style.

I didn’t think I was a comedic writer before – I would just put things in the game that made me chuckle – but one of my team members told me I was really funny, so hearing that and learning my own style was nice.


How difficult in general is it to write for such a huge, open-ended game?

Some of it comes from experience. We had some junior people join the team and I just told them not to worry, because literally everybody makes the same mistakes. The senior people usually make sure you don’t forget things and generally the more games you work on, the easier it gets.

There’s a really long checklist for dialogue; you need to check if a particular NPC is dead, or which abilities you’ve learned or haven’t, what your reputation is with various factions… you just end up storing that all in your head, when if you’re just starting out you might have it on a notepad. It can get very complex, but it’s really satisfying.

Tim came by recently and said he was really impressed by one of the characters that I built, because he was on his eighth playthrough and he said every single time he talked to the NPC he would react differently based on what he’d done. It was nice to hear, but it’s also really time consuming to make that work!


There are a lot of player choice moments in the game. How are you expecting players to react to some of the decisions they will make in the game?

It’s really interesting to me because you want to have a feeling of consequence and that the game is immediately reacting to you. When we were playing through recently during a group playtest, there is this one NPC who becomes really disgruntled if you side with The Board and our producer was really upset at first, but later thought it was hilarious that the NPC was giving her attitude. I think the main goal is that even when you present a set of consequences, to make sure that they’re still fun, not off-putting.


What’s your proudest moment from The Outer Worlds script?

There are so many. This is definitely the largest game that I’ve worked on and showing it off to people has been crazy. At E3 they showed my content for the demo and seeing rooms full of people watch that and chuckle at certain points… I’ve never been in a situation like that before. If people do enjoy it then I think that’s just the best thing ever!

 

[toro]

The Outer Sequels are waiting behind the corner.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

>Tim came by recently and said he was really impressed by one of the characters that I built, because he was on his eighth playthrough and he said every single time he talked to the NPC he would react differently based on what he’d done.

I really trying to not hype up too much but damn this give me so much hope for this game. A NPC that reacted eight times differently and Tim already played 8 times.. Sounds like the development of this game is going better than any other Obisidian game ever.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Since this game is made by obsidian it will be unfinished mess from the begging to the point where they release "final patch" and its still not even close to being finished, they spent a decade developing pillars franchise and end result is crap

Hi. Welcome in 2019. How do you like living in 2010?

Pillars was released in 2010?

But no, yeah, sure, it's 2019 so that means Obsidian changed and now suddenly produces high-quality, thoroughly QA content, because hurrr... it's 2019 so umm... magic is real now.

 

[J_C]

Since this game is made by obsidian it will be unfinished mess from the begging to the point where they release "final patch" and its still not even close to being finished, they spent a decade developing pillars franchise and end result is crap

Hi. Welcome in 2019. How do you like living in 2010?

Pillars was released in 2010?

But no, yeah, sure, it's 2019 so that means Obsidian changed and now suddenly produces high-quality, thoroughly QA content, because hurrr... it's 2019 so umm... magic is real now.

Pillars was perfectly playable at release. Anybody saying otherwise is a filthy liar. Ther last bug ridden mess of a game was New Vegas.

 

[Prime Junta]

Pillars was perfectly playable at release.

Playable yes but it was very, very rough. It only really started to be enjoyable at 2.0.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Yeah stacking bug was close to game breaking.

 

[Prime Junta]

Yeah stacking bug was close to game breaking.

It wasn't just the bugs, also stuff like AI that invariably swarmed your tank but didn't make much use of its special abilities, assembly-line itemisation, lots of really badly balanced abilities (either super ineffective or win buttons, the Grease thingy for example was a ridiculously powerful mass disable), and so on. In version 1.0 it was really easy to figure out which ones were the brokenly-effective tactics and spells/abilities and then just grind those until the endgame. As well as way too many cut-and-paste trash mobs.

It was possible to find imaginative and fun ways to play the game but you had to go actively looking for them; the obvious way to play was grindy and rote. Darth Roxor wasn't entirely wrong when he trashed it in his review; the problem was that he wasn't able to see that underneath the shitty balance, rush-job encounters, cookie-cutter items, and poor AI was a robust set of cRPG mechanics -- and if you wanted to, it was possible to find a fun and varied way to play with them even in 1.0.

Version 2.0 fixed most of these problems and version 3.0 added polish which allowed them to come into their own. By the time WM2 came out Pillars 1 was a legit good RPG, even if it still retained some problems that couldn't be fixed without making a whole new game.

 

[The_Mask]

Pillars was perfectly playable at release.

I still have the save where I got like triple the items and loot at the end of the Endless Paths dragon hoard.

Good times - no alcohol required.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

iirc 1.0 pillows didn't even have party AI, right?

 

[Prime Junta]

iirc 1.0 pillows didn't even have party AI, right?

I think it had rudimentary party AI but certainly no way to adjust it. Can't remember for certain though.